Wilmington, NC News

Wrightsville Beach pondering a skate park

WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, NC (WWAY)– A group of skateboarders on Wrightsville Beach have been pushing the town for a skate park for quite some time. They are now one step closer as the Board of Aldermen decided Thursday night to allow them to work out details and further questions with the town staff.

Although that vote did not give the final okay to the park it did have many people fired up at the Wrightsville Beach Town Hall.

“We’re a boarding community. From surfers, stand up paddle boarders, to skaters,” said Michael Carter, a Wrightsville Beach resident.

“I do not want to see Wrightsville Beach use its green space,” said resident Martha Chaffins.

Over a hundred people packed the town hall with the majority of them coming to speak about the proposed skate park.

The public park, which would be privately funded, sparked a good bit of debate.

“Skateboarding is really big. A lot of my friends do it,” said resident Fisher Hardee. “A lot of kids on the island do it and I feel like it would be very useful to them and useful to the future community.”

“An unsupervised park is extremely dangerous because children will do what children do,” said Chaffins.

There are many liabilities that need to be addressed such as supervision, safety, and insurance questions. The Aldermen voted 3 to 2 to take a better look at those questions and leave a final vote for a new board.

If passed there would be a lengthy construction phase only if or when over $200,000 is privately raised.

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on Friday, October 14th, 2011 at 12:10 am and is filed under Wilmington.
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